{"id":19684,"date":"2021-06-18T18:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=19684"},"modified":"2021-06-18T17:41:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T15:41:02","slug":"lei-lei-or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/lei-lei-or\/","title":{"rendered":"lei, Lei or..?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ciao a tutti,<\/em><\/h3>\n

Last week you read a professional and formal<\/strong> exchange between a real estate agent and a woman, and you may have noticed something strange:<\/p>\n

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Photo from Pixabay, CCO.<\/p><\/div>\n

Professoressa Landini<\/strong>:\u00a0Pronto, chiamo per un annuncio che ho visto sul vostro sito.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Hello, I am calling about an announcement that I saw on your website.)<\/p>\n

Agente immobiliare<\/strong>:\u00a0Certo Signora, come posso aiutarLa? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Of course Madam, how can I help you<\/strong>?)<\/p>\n

Che cosa significa?<\/em> What does that mean? Why is it La (and not ‘ti’ for you) and why is it capitalized?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    ‘Lei’ is the formal way to say ‘tu’ (you)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In my post about the difference between Italian in the North and South,<\/a> I did explain that in the South you may hear ‘voi’<\/strong> as the formal you, as well as some history as to why.<\/p>\n

    As a general rule of thumb though, I would stick to using Lei<\/strong> since it is more common, so you will need to get used to listening for this and knowing that it means ‘you’ (formal) and not ‘she.’<\/p>\n

    2. lei vs Lei\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    In written exchanges it is most grammatically correct to write Lei with a capital L to emphasize that it is the formal ‘you’ and not ‘she.’<\/p>\n

    3. La ?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    In this exchange we see the direct object pronoun of Lei. It is again capitalized to emphasize that it is representing the formal ‘you.’<\/p>\n

    Think of a direct object pronoun as being directly<\/strong> involved in or affected by the action described by a verb. In other words it answers the questions what?<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0whom?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    Other examples:<\/p>\n

    La ringrazio<\/em>–<\/strong> I thank you (formal)<\/p>\n

    Spero di rivederLa presto<\/em>\u00a0–<\/strong> I hope to see you soon (formal)<\/p>\n

    4. Le ?<\/h3>\n

    Le would be the indirect object pronoun of Lei. You could also say “a lei” (to you”) for emphasis, which we will see below.<\/p>\n

    An indirect object pronoun is the receiver of the verb’s action.\u00a0It answers the questions to whom?<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0for whom?<\/em><\/p>\n

    Examples:<\/p>\n

    A me non piace il caff\u00e8, mentre a Lei<\/u>\u00a0piace, vero? –<\/em> I don’t like coffee, but you like it right? (formal, emphasis)<\/p>\n

    Le piace il caff\u00e8? – <\/em>Do you like coffee? (formal)<\/p>\n

    Ho bisogno di parlare\u00a0a Lei<\/u> soltanto – <\/em>I need to speak to you only (formal, emphasis)<\/p>\n

    Ho bisogno di parlarLe – <\/span><\/em>I need to speak to you (formal)<\/span><\/p>\n

    __________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

    Direct object and indirect objects could be especially tricky because some verbs that are direct\/indirect in English, aren’t always the same way in Italian, certamente!\u00a0<\/em>You will need to mostly memorize which verbs take a DOP and which take an IDOP. For more information about these tricky pronouns, check out my blog post from last year.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

    Ciao a tutti, Last week you read a professional and formal exchange between a real estate agent and a woman, and you may have noticed something strange: Professoressa Landini:\u00a0Pronto, chiamo per un annuncio che ho visto sul vostro sito. (Hello, I am calling about an announcement that I saw on your website.) Agente immobiliare:\u00a0Certo Signora…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":19692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19684","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t